Who (and what) was the Buddha?
V Cultural/Historical/Political/Economic context
V Historical -
V Sakyans were Aryans
* Migrated to Northern India from somewhere northeast of Pakistan 1500-2000 BCE
* Subdued and enslaved native population, probably darker skinned
V Brought ancient collection of hymns, the Vedas
* Prayers to variety of gods
* Recipes for ritual practices
* Charms and magical spells
V Cultural/Religious
V By Siddhattas day, Vedic religion had degenerated into Brahminism
V Caste system
* Brahmins at top, as priests, teachers, keepers and interpreters of the Vedas
* Ksattiyas as warriers and political powers
* Vassas as farmers/tradesmen/merchants
* Suddas as craftsmen and working class
* Those without caste as menial workers, servants
V Slaves
* Not a plantation system; slaves were probably reasonably well-treated, worked alongside masters when time-critical work had to be done - planting, harvesting, irrigating fields.
V Brahma was the creator god
* Identified with Vedic Purusha - Brahmins born from Brahma's mouth, Ksattiyas from shoulders and arms, Vassas from thighs, Suddas from legs, and outcasts from soles of feet.
V Brahmins were the conductors of ritual sacrifices
* Controlled gods
* Kept natural cycles going
* Brought good fortune
* Preserved natural, civil, and moral order
* Kamma (Sanskrit karma) was ritual efficiency
* Rebirth and reincarnation affected by ritual rites of passage, but otherwise inexplicable
V The Upanishadic tradition attempted to re-invigorate Brahminism with sophisticated doctrine
* Atman was individual soul
* Brahman was universal soul
* Goal of spiritual practice was union, which marked end of round of rebirth: moksha, "release"
* First Upanishads pre-dated Buddha, may have had some influence on him
* Major body of Upanishads came later, may have been influenced by Buddha's teachings
V Sramanas were seekers
V Etymology from shram, "to exert, effort, labor or to perform austerity".
* possibly cognate with "shaman"
* Probably predated Upanishads; earliest Upanishads may have been composed by sramanas
* Sramanas gave up worldly possessions and wandered, living on alms
V Practiced various forms of asceticism
* Standing in one place, in one posture, for long periods of time
* Staring at the sun
* Going naked
* Eating very little, or only certain kinds of food
* Not washing
* Living like animals - cattle or dogs
* Held wide variety of doctrines
V Economic - a time of increasing wealth
* Improving technology, mainly metalworking
V Improved agricultural techniques
* Better implements
* Better cultivation technologies - irrigation, grain storage
V Increasing trade
* Better roads
* Improved traveller security
* Use of money
V Rise of cities
* Places of intellectual ferment
* Rising importance of merchant class
V Political - independent republican oligarchies being subsumed by increasingly powerful kingdoms
* More wealth to tax
* More people to impress into armies (and wealth to share with them)
V Two main kingdoms in Buddha's section of India
* Kosala, which included the Sakyan federation, ruled by King Pasenadi
* Magadha, south of the Ganges, ruled by King Bimbhisara
V Siddhatta Gotama
V Early 6th - late 5th century BCE.
* Best contemporary estimate is ~550 - 480 BCE
* Early estimates, and most Buddhist traditions, are about a century earlier
V Home town of Kapillavattu
* Now within the country of Nepal
* Chief city of Sakyan federation
V Small and predominately rural/agricultural
V Mahanama explains the facts of the householder life to Anuruddha:
* "First, the fields have to be ploughed, then they must be sown, then water must be led into them, then the water must be led away, then the weeds must be dug up, then the crop must be reaped, then it must be harvested, then it must be made into stocks, then you must have them threshed, then you must have the straw winnowed, then you must have the chaff winnowed, then you must have the chaff sifted, then you must have it all brought in. And the same must be done the next year, and the year after that."

Anuruddha asked, "When will the work stop? When will we see an end to the work? When will be able to play without concern, wrapping ourselves in sensual pleasures?"

Mahanama replied, "There is no pause in the work, my dear Anuruddha. We can see no end to it. Even when our fathers and grandfathers died, the work still had to be done."

Great Disciples of the Buddha
By Nyanaponika Thera, et. al.
p. 186
* No kiln-fired bricks
* Pre-literate
* Small dwellings, built of natural materials - wood and sun-dried brick
* In kingdom of Kosala
V On route between Savatthi and Rajagraha
* Capitals of Kosala and Maghada respectively
V Early life
* Father wealthy landowner, probably chief of federation
* Siddhatta raised in luxury and privilege
* Raised by stepmother/aunt Pajapati after mother Maya died a week after Siddhatta's birth
* Later traditions that he was a prince, had three palaces, etc., almost certainly legendary.
V At some point, he became dissatisfied
V Legend describes the three messengers:
* Old man
* Diseased man
* Dead body
* And the fourth, a blissful sramana
V Buddha describes the experience less mystically:
* "Monks, I lived in refinement, utmost refinement, total refinement. My father even had lotus ponds made in our palace: one where red-lotuses bloomed, one where white lotuses bloomed, one where blue lotuses bloomed, all for my sake. I used no sandalwood that was not from Varanasi. My turban was from Varanasi, as were my tunic, my lower garments, & my outer cloak. A white sunshade was held over me day & night to protect me from cold, heat, dust, dirt, & dew.

"I had three palaces: one for the cold season, one for the hot season, one for the rainy season. During the four months of the rainy season I was entertained in the rainy-season palace by minstrels without a single man among them, and I did not once come down from the palace. Whereas the servants, workers, & retainers in other people's homes are fed meals of lentil soup & broken rice, in my father's home the servants, workers, & retainers were fed wheat, rice, and meat.

"Even though I was endowed with such fortune, such total refinement, the thought occurred to me: 'When an untaught, run-of-the-mill person, himself subject to aging, not beyond aging, sees another who is aged, he is horrified, humiliated, & disgusted, oblivious to himself that he too is subject to aging, not beyond aging. If I — who am subject to aging, not beyond aging — were to be horrified, humiliated, & disgusted on seeing another person who is aged, that would not be fitting for me.' As I noticed this, the [typical] young person's intoxication with youth entirely dropped away.

"Even though I was endowed with such fortune, such total refinement, the thought occurred to me: 'When an untaught, run-of-the-mill person, himself subject to illness, not beyond illness, sees another who is ill, he is horrified, humiliated, & disgusted, oblivious to himself that he too is subject to illness, not beyond illness. And if I — who am subject to illness, not beyond illness — were to be horrified, humiliated, & disgusted on seeing another person who is ill, that would not be fitting for me.' As I noticed this, the healthy person's intoxication with health entirely dropped away.

"Even though I was endowed with such fortune, such total refinement, the thought occurred to me: 'When an untaught, run-of-the-mill person, himself subject to death, not beyond death, sees another who is dead, he is horrified, humiliated, & disgusted, oblivious to himself that he too is subject to death, not beyond death. And if I — who am subject to death, not beyond death — were to be horrified, humiliated, & disgusted on seeing another person who is dead, that would not be fitting for me.' As I noticed this, the living person's intoxication with life entirely dropped away."

— AN 3.38
V He makes the decision to enter the homeless life:
* "Before my Awakening, when I was still an unawakened Bodhisatta, the thought occurred to me: 'The household life is crowded, a dusty road. Life gone forth is the open air. It isn't easy, living in a home, to lead the holy life that is totally perfect, totally pure, a polished shell. What if I, having shaved off my hair & beard and putting on the ochre robe, were to go forth from the home life into homelessness?'

"So at a later time, when I was still young, black-haired, endowed with the blessings of youth in the first stage of life, having shaved off my hair & beard — though my parents wished otherwise and were grieving with tears on their faces — I put on the ochre robe and went forth from the home life into homelessness."
V He goes to Rajagraha (modern Rajgir)
V Largest and most important city in Northern India at the time
* Lots of intellectual stimulation
* Many sramana sects centered there
* The place to be for an ambitious youth
V Siddhatta's charismatic presence attracts notice of King Bimbhisara
V The king offers him a place at the court, but Siddhatta refuses
* "You are young, youthful,
in the first stage of youth,
endowed with the stature & coloring
of a noble-warrior.
You would look glorious
in the vanguard of an army,
arrayed with an elephant squadron.
I offer you wealth : enjoy it.
I ask your birth : inform me."

"Straight ahead, your majesty,
by the foothills of the Himalayas,
is a country consummate
in energy & wealth,
inhabited by Kosalans:
Solar by clan,
Sakyans by birth.
From that lineage I have gone forth,
but not in search of sensual pleasures.
Seeing the danger in sensual pleasures
— and renunciation as rest —
I go to strive.
That's where my heart delights."
V He studies with Alara Kalama and Uddaka Ramaputta
* From each, he learned valuable meditative techniques
* Each invited him to participate as a leader of the order
V But the techniques he's learned fail to achieve the goal he seeks:
* 'This Dhamma leads not to disenchantment, to dispassion, to cessation, to stilling, to direct knowledge, to Awakening, nor to Unbinding (nibbana)....'
V He was joined, at some point, by five companions
* Commentary says that they were brahmins, from Siddhatta's home state of Sakya
V He practices extreme asceticism, controlling his breath, sitting in one place, living on one grain of rice per day:
* "My body became extremely emaciated. Simply from my eating so little, my limbs became like the jointed segments of vine stems or bamboo stems... My backside became like a camel's hoof... My spine stood out like a string of beads... My ribs jutted out like the jutting rafters of an old, run-down barn... The gleam of my eyes appeared to be sunk deep in my eye sockets like the gleam of water deep in a well... My scalp shriveled & withered like a green bitter gourd, shriveled & withered in the heat & the wind... The skin of my belly became so stuck to my spine that when I thought of touching my belly, I grabbed hold of my spine as well; and when I thought of touching my spine, I grabbed hold of the skin of my belly as well... If I urinated or defecated, I fell over on my face right there... Simply from my eating so little, if I tried to ease my body by rubbing my limbs with my hands, the hair — rotted at its roots — fell from my body as I rubbed, simply from eating so little."
V But it didn't work:
* "I thought: 'Whatever priests or contemplatives in the past have felt painful, racking, piercing feelings due to their striving, this is the utmost. None have been greater than this. Whatever priests or contemplatives in the future will feel painful, racking, piercing feelings due to their striving, this is the utmost. None will be greater than this. Whatever priests or contemplatives in the present are feeling painful, racking, piercing feelings due to their striving, this is the utmost. None is greater than this. But with this racking practice of austerities I haven't attained any superior human state, any distinction in knowledge or vision worthy of the noble ones. Could there be another path to Awakening?'"
V And he recalls an experience from his childhood:
* "I thought: 'I recall once, when my father the Sakyan was working, and I was sitting in the cool shade of a rose-apple tree, then — quite withdrawn from sensuality, withdrawn from unskillful mental qualities — I entered & remained in the first jhana: rapture & pleasure born from withdrawal, accompanied by directed thought & evaluation. Could that be the path to Awakening?' Then, following on that memory, came the realization: 'That is the path to Awakening.' I thought: 'So why am I afraid of that pleasure that has nothing to do with sensuality, nothing to do with unskillful mental qualities?' I thought: 'I am no longer afraid of that pleasure that has nothing to do with sensuality, nothing to do with unskillful mental qualities, but it is not easy to achieve that pleasure with a body so extremely emaciated. Suppose I were to take some solid food: some rice & porridge.' So I took some solid food: some rice & porridge. Now five monks had been attending on me, thinking, 'If Gotama, our contemplative, achieves some higher state, he will tell us.' But when they saw me taking some solid food — some rice & porridge — they were disgusted and left me, thinking, 'Gotama the contemplative is living luxuriously. He has abandoned his exertion and is backsliding into abundance.'

"So when I had taken solid food and regained strength, then — quite withdrawn from sensuality, withdrawn from unskillful mental qualities, I entered & remained in the first jhana: rapture & pleasure born from withdrawal, accompanied by directed thought & evaluation. But the pleasant feeling that arose in this way did not invade my mind or remain. With the stilling of directed thoughts & evaluations, I entered & remained in the second jhana: rapture & pleasure born of composure, unification of awareness free from directed thought & evaluation — internal assurance. But the pleasant feeling that arose in this way did not invade my mind or remain. With the fading of rapture I remained in equanimity, mindful & alert, and physically sensitive of pleasure. I entered & remained in the third jhana, of which the Noble Ones declare, 'Equanimous & mindful, he has a pleasant abiding.' But the pleasant feeling that arose in this way did not invade my mind or remain. With the abandoning of pleasure & pain — as with the earlier disappearance of elation & distress — I entered & remained in the fourth jhana: purity of equanimity & mindfulness, neither pleasure nor pain. But the pleasant feeling that arose in this way did not invade my mind or remain."
V He placed himself at the base of a fig tree and determined to stay there, until he had achieved the knowledge he sought; after six days and nights, during the full moon night in the month of May (traditionally, also, the anniversary of his birth), he attained a series of realizations.
* First, he realized that he'd been stuck in this round of endless births and deaths forever. Through eons of wandering in Samsara, there is no form of sentient being that he had not experienced
* Second, he saw the laws that determine what kind of existence a person will experience, depending on the kind of life he lives and the ethical choices he makes.
* And finally, he realized the essential truths regarding the ubiquity of dukkha (pain, suffering, frustration, general unsatisfactoriness - we'll explore the meaning of dukkha in detail in Class 2), its cause, its cessation, and the way to its cessation.
V And he achieved his purpose:
* 'My heart, thus knowing, thus seeing, was released from the poisonous bubbling up of sensuality, released from the poisonous bubbling up of becoming, released from the poisonous bubbling up of ignorance. With release, there was the knowledge, 'Released.' I discerned that 'Birth is ended, the holy life fulfilled, the task done. There is nothing further for this world.'
V The Buddha
* At that point, with that release, Siddhatta Gotama became a Buddha - one who is enlightened, fully awakened to the unvarnished reality of existence. But he was not yet "The Buddha".
V We don't know how long he spent contemplating the vast knowledge that he had attained during his night of awakening, but at some point, he had to make a choice.
* While he was alone and in seclusion, this line of thinking arose in his awareness: "This Dhamma that I have attained is deep, hard to see, hard to realize, peaceful, refined, beyond the scope of conjecture, subtle, to-be-experienced by the wise. But this generation delights in attachment, is excited by attachment, enjoys attachment. For a generation delighting in attachment, excited by attachment, enjoying attachment, this/that conditionality and dependent co-arising are hard to see. This state, too, is hard to see: the resolution of all fabrications, the relinquishment of all acquisitions, the ending of craving; dispassion; cessation; Unbinding. And if I were to teach the Dhamma and if others would not understand me, that would be tiresome for me, troublesome for me."
V His inclination is not to teach; to lean back and live the rest of his life as an enlightened being. At that point, the god Brahma Sahampadi intervenes:
* Then Brahma Sahampati, having known with his own awareness the line of thinking in the Blessed One's awareness, thought: "The world is lost! The world is destroyed! The mind of the Tathagata, the arahant, the Rightly Self-awakened One inclines to dwelling at ease, not to teaching the Dhamma!" Then, just as a strong man might extend his flexed arm or flex his extended arm, Brahma Sahampati disappeared from the Brahma-world and reappeared in front of the Blessed One. Arranging his upper robe over one shoulder, he knelt down with his right knee on the ground, saluted the Blessed One with his hands before his heart, and said to him: "Lord, let the Blessed One teach the Dhamma! Let the One-Well-Gone teach the Dhamma! There are beings with little dust in their eyes who are falling away because they do not hear the Dhamma. There will be those who will understand the Dhamma."

...

Then the Blessed One, having understood Brahma's invitation, out of compassion for beings, surveyed the world with the eye of an Awakened One. As he did so, he saw beings with little dust in their eyes and those with much, those with keen faculties and those with dull, those with good attributes and those with bad, those easy to teach and those hard, some of them seeing disgrace and danger in the other world. Just as in a pond of blue or red or white lotuses, some lotuses — born and growing in the water — might flourish while immersed in the water, without rising up from the water; some might stand at an even level with the water; while some might rise up from the water and stand without being smeared by the water — so too, surveying the world with the eye of an Awakened One, the Blessed One saw beings with little dust in their eyes and those with much, those with keen faculties and those with dull, those with good attributes and those with bad, those easy to teach and those hard, some of them seeing disgrace and danger in the other world.

...

Then Brahma Sahampati, thinking, "The Blessed One has given his consent to teach the Dhamma," bowed down to the Blessed One and, circling him on the right, disappeared right there.
* The Buddha decides who to begin with: Alara Kalama and Uddakka Ramaputta, he realizes, have both died. The five monks who had abandoned him when he took solid food are now living in Varanasi, and he sets off to teach the Dhamma to them.
V Along the way, he meets a wanderer, Upaka the Ajivaka:
* 'Clear, my friend, are your faculties. Pure your complexion, and bright. On whose account have you gone forth? Who is your teacher? In whose Dhamma do you delight?'

"When this was said, I replied to Upaka the Ajivaka in verses:

'All-vanquishing,
all-knowing am I,
with regard to all things,
unadhering.
All-abandoning,
released in the ending of craving:
having fully known on my own,
to whom should I point as my teacher?

I have no teacher,
and one like me can't be found.
In the world with its devas,
I have no counterpart.

For I am an arahant in the world;
I, the unexcelled teacher.
I, alone, am rightly self-awakened.
Cooled am I, unbound.

To set rolling the wheel of Dhamma
I go to the city of Kasi.
In a world become blind,
I beat the drum of the Deathless.'

"'From your claims, my friend, you must be an infinite conqueror.'

'Conquerors are those like me
who have reached fermentations' end.
I've conquered evil qualities,
and so, Upaka, I'm a conqueror.'

"When this was said, Upaka said, 'May it be so, my friend,' and — shaking his head, taking a side-road — he left.
V When he arrives at the Deer Park at Issipattana, outside of Varanasi, and finds the monks, he first has to convince them that something really important has happened. And perhaps he's learned from Upaka's response; he softens his approach, just slightly. At first, the monks, seeing him coming, resolve to ignore him, because he had abandoned his ascetic practice, but the closer he came, the weaker their resolve; affected by his charismatic presence, and out of their deep love for him, they welcome him:
* One, standing up to greet me, received my robe & bowl. Another spread out a seat. Another set out water for washing my feet. However, they addressed me by name and as 'friend.'

"So I said to them, 'Don't address the Tathagata by name and as "friend." The Tathagata, friends, is a worthy one, rightly self-awakened. Lend ear, friends: the Deathless has been attained. I will instruct you. I will teach you the Dhamma. Practicing as instructed, you will in no long time reach & remain in the supreme goal of the holy life for which clansmen rightly go forth from home into homelessness, knowing & realizing it for yourselves in the here & now.'

"When this was said, the group of five monks replied to me, 'By that practice, that conduct, that performance of austerities you did not attain any superior human states, any distinction in knowledge & vision worthy of a noble one. So how can you now — living luxuriously, straying from your exertion, backsliding into abundance — have attained any superior human states, any distinction in knowledge & vision worthy of a noble one?'

"When this was said, I replied to them, 'The Tathagata, monks, is not living luxuriously, has not strayed from his exertion, has not backslid into abundance. The Tathagata, friends, is a worthy one, rightly self-awakened. Lend ear, friends: the Deathless has been attained. I will instruct you. I will teach you the Dhamma. Practicing as instructed, you will in no long time reach & remain in the supreme goal of the holy life for which clansmen rightly go forth from home into homelessness, knowing & realizing it for yourselves in the here & now.'
* That exchange was repeated three times; finally, the Buddha asked the monks, "Do you recall my ever having spoken in this way before?" "No," they answered. And he was then able to convince them that he had found something genuinely new in the world, that it was, in fact, what they had all been seeking, and that he was prepared to share this momentous truth with them.
V And he teaches the Dhamma. We'll explore this in more detail in Class Two, but there are three important things to remember, going into that teaching:
* Siddhatta Gotama has become a Buddha by realizing certain specific knowledges.
* He's done that himself, with no teacher.
* He's made the decision to share the knowledge he's achieved with the suffering world. He is The Buddha, the Tathagata.